Simon Francis has joined Al Hilal and is leading the club’s transfer activity, with Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes expected to follow his former colleague to the Saudi Pro League side.Hughes, whose Liverpool contract runs through to June 2027, is fully focused on Liverpool’s summer transfer business and supporting the club’s new head coach Andoni Iraola throughout the current market.Hughes’s contractual situation means this would naturally be his last transfer window at the club before a period of transition which would allow a successor to settle into the role at Anfield.Francis and Al Hilal are currently operating on the basis of Hughes arriving at the Riyadh-based club in due course.The Athletic reported on March 18 that the 47-year-old had been identified by Al Hilal with a view to him joining the club this summer, but Hughes has yet to put pen to paper on any deal.
Francis — who replaced Hughes as Bournemouth’s technical director following the former Scotland international midfielder’s move to Anfield —has left the south-coast club to take up a similar role at Al Hilal.Francis and Hughes were team-mates at Bournemouth during their playing careers and were colleagues in the club’s technical department.Hughes was appointed by Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool’s U.S. owner, in March 2024 on a contract through to the summer of 2027.Alongside Michael Edwards, FSG’s CEO of football, he led the process which appointed Arne Slot as head coach in 2024 and oversaw Liverpool’s £449million ($599m) spend in the 2025 summer transfer window.Last month, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) sold a 70 per cent stake in Al Hilal to Kingdom Holding Company, the firm run by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the billionaire businessman and member of the Saudi royal family.The deal valued the club at SAR1.4billion (£276million; $373m).Al Hilal are managed by the former Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi, with Karim Benzema, Darwin Nunez, Ruben Neves and Kalidou Koulibaly among their most decorated players.They were one of four clubs bought by PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, in 2023, alongside local rivals Al Nassr, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad.
